Talking About Haemorrhoids: Breaking the Stigma and Seeking Help

March 19, 2024

Haemorrhoids is a common problem faced by millions of people all over the world but still most of them shy away from discussing it in front of others. This is all because of the stigma surrounding it, which leads to embarrassment, reluctance to seek help and misinformation. But this can be harmful and lead to dreadful consequences. So, it is important to break this stigma and spread awareness about haemorrhoids and its treatment. In this blog we will discuss haemorrhoids, its causes, treatments and breaking the stigma surrounding haemorrhoids.

What Are Haemorrhoids?

Haemorrhoids also known as piles is a chronic disease that happens when veins in the lower rectum swells up. Piles mass can also develop under the skin around the anus known as external haemorrhoids.

Causes

Haemorrhoid develops because of the excessive pressure which creates on the blood vessels around the anus. There are many reasons in our daily life which puts excessive pressure on the blood vessels around the anus such as straining during bowel movements, constipation, eating a low fibre diet, pregnancy, lifting heavy weight and sitting for a long time on the toilet seat.

Symptoms

Talking about the symptoms of haemorrhoids which includes rectal discomfort, rectal bleeding, lump formation in the anal, an itchy anus and pain around your anus.

Breaking The Stigma

In India many people find it difficult to talk about haemorrhoids and related issues as anything related to bowel movements are a taboo here. This is the reason there is a stigma surrounding it which makes people feel ashamed to talk about having piles and makes it difficult to seek help for the same. Which leads them to face drastic consequences.

Issues Faced By Piles Patients

Because of haemorrhoids people have to face many emotional challenges which restrict them from conversing about this and seeking help.

Social embarrassment: This is one of the biggest mental and emotional challenges haemorrhoids patients have to face in society. Most of the people are still unaware about the science behind the haemorrhoids and connect it with sexual promiscuity or poor hygiene. This lack of awareness leads to stigmatization. Which makes this situation more painful for the people suffering from it. This feeling of shame also restricts these people from taking part in social events.
Anxiety and stress: People with piles are in a constant fear of experiencing social embarrassment and rectal bleeding which can lead to chronic stress and anxiety and also make these people less focused and less productive.

That is why it is necessary for our society to break this stigma and normalize the conversation regarding haemorrhoids, bowel health and hygiene. Which will spread awareness and will also help people to come out and seek help.

Ways To Break This Stigma

These are some ways to put a full stop to this stigma surrounding Haemorrhoids:

Spreading Awareness: This is the most necessary step to break this stigma surrounding haemorrhoids. More than 90% of India’s population are not aware of haemorrhoids and related issues. Which leads to spreading misconceptions about this topic. To break this taboo we need to educate people with the right and accurate information regarding haemorrhoids such as causes, symptoms and cure.
Normalize the conversation regarding anal health: For breaking this taboo it is necessary for people to normalize the conversation regarding anal health and hygiene. We need to talk more about this and share more personal experiences and stories.

Seeking Help

If you are also suffering from piles of pain and are embarrassed to talk about that in front of people then keep this in mind that you are not the only one experiencing haemorrhoids. You need to come forward and seek help before it’s too late to cure. There are many ways to seek help for haemorrhoids and some of them are listed below:

Consultation: constipation, pain in the anal, itchy anal and rectum discomfort are some common symptoms of piles. If you are experiencing any of these, instead of feeling embarrassed consult a health specialist and get proper treatment for a permanent cure.
Haemorrhoid Prevention: For preventing the development of haemorrhoids the first step you should take is to change your unhealthy diet to a healthy diet. Eat more fibre rich food such as beans, lentils, apple, avocado and whole grains and increase the intake of water. You should also stop lifting heavy weights and limit the time you spend sitting on a toilet seat.
Medication: For haemorrhoids there are different piles medicines to treat different symptoms of haemorrhoids such as hydrocortisone and lidocaine are creams which are helpful in external piles and helps to treat pain, inflammation and itching. Tylenol, ibuprofen and aspirin are some oral analgesics that help to treat piles pain. Other than that you stool softeners like colace, Metamucil and Citrucel are also used by the haemorrhoids patients.
Surgery: In most of the cases haemorrhoids can be treated with medications but in extreme cases when the piles lumps protrude outside and cannot be cured with manual treatment, at that time people need surgery to treat this. But this can be avoided by early diagnosis and treatment.
Ayurveda: Other than above mentioned treatments you can try ayurvedic treatment for piles to cure it permanently without surgery and pain. Ayurveda is the branch of medicine practiced in the ancient times to cure deadly diseases with natural ingredients. You can use ayuvedic piles capsule blended with the ingredients such as triphala, katha, giloy and reetha or you can apply ayurvedic oils for piles which are made with natural ingredients like coconut oil, camphor, nirgundi oil and fitkari.

Conclusion

While summing up this blog we have come to this conclusion that haemorrhoids are a very common and most overlooked topic in our society. We need to spread awareness about haemorrhoids to break the stigma surrounding it so that people suffering with it can come forward and seek help instead of suffering from this pain alone. We also need to normalize the conversation regarding anal health and hygiene to help the patients in talking freely about their issues.